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Beach volleyball
01/07/2017

2017 FIVB World Championships Pool Placements Confirmed

Porec, Croatia, July 1, 2017 - With the start of the competition four weeks away, the men’s and women’s pool placements for the 2017 FIVB World Championships were determined here Saturday during a morning drawing of lots at this week’s international beach volleyball event in Porec.

The drawing of lots determined the 12 pools of four teams each per gender for the $1-million FIVB World Championships to be played July 28 through August 6. The 11th edition of the event will be staged at the state-of-the art Vienna Centre Court at Donauinsel with the focal point of the action and entertainment being held with a picturesque view of the Danube River.

With Austria hosting the event for the second time, the medal matches for the 2017 FIVB World Championships will be August 5 for women and August 6 for men. The winning men’s and women’s teams will split the $60,000 first-place prizes. The Austrian town of Klagenfurt hosted the 2001 event, when South American pairs from Argentina (Mariano Baracetti/Martin Conde) and Brazil (Shelda Bede/Adriana Behar) captured the gold medals.

The top spots in Pool A through Pool K were determined by FIVB seeding points 35 days (June 23) prior to the start of the competition with the Brazilian pairs of Saymon Barbosa/Alvaro Filho and Talita Antunes/Larissa Franca the No. 1 seeds in the men’s and women’s competition, respectively.

Due to its host country role, the Austrian pair of Clemens Doppler/Alexander Horst are seeded No. 12 in the men’s competition and will be listed as the top team in Pool L. The top host country women’s team will be Katharina Schutzenhofer/Stefanie Schwaiger, who will be the top pair in Pool L.

Following the completion of pool play, the top two pairs in each group will advance directly to the 32-team elimination bracket along with the four best third-place duos based on match points, set-point ratios and/or rally-point ratios. A Lucky Loser round for the teams ranked fifth through 12th will be played with the four winners advancing to the elimination bracket.

For the bracket phase of the Vienna competition, there will be a draw to place each team in the bracket based on their pool standings with the 12 pool winners being seeded No. 1 to No. 12, and the third-place finishers, including the Lucky Losers being seeded No. 25 through No. 32. The second-place finishers in each pool will be seeded No. 13 through No. 24.

Here are the pool assignments for the 2017 FIVB World Championships where defending men’s champions Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt of Brazil headline Pool E as the No. 5-seeded team. Agatha Bednarczuk and Barbara Seixas, the Brazilian 2015 FIVB women’s world champions, have split for the 2017 season. Agatha and Eduarda “Duda” Lisboa will be the No. 3 seeded team and listed first in Pool C. Barbara and new partner Fernanda Alves will be the top pair in Pool H as the No. 8 seeds.